Monday, August 31, 2009

What a great weekend! Thank you everyone who made my Special Sale a success. There's going to be lots of beautiful beadwork out there!

My friend, Pennie and I spent the day and evening together yesterday. We found a little Hummingbird fluttering around on the back porch. It was missing all of it's tail feathers and half of one wing's feathers. We made it comfortable and I fed it sugar water from a dropper. All I had to keep it in

was my salad spinner basket. It kept trying to fly out of the little box I had it in. It could fly a little. This morning, I took it to Project Wildlife. I made a donation, I like to call it "child support", to this great volunteer organization.

On to the art supply store to buy myself some nice papers to play with. I put them on the deck and took this picture. Then my friend Ginger said, "Look at the reflection in the pot!" So I took a shot of that! What an inspiring day I am having.

Also available are Towering Bling Ring Kits. A collaboration between fabulous lampwork artist Heather Trimlett and me. This wildly colorful and fun ring can be made really tall like the ring in the photo. Or shorter to suit your taste. Three color combinations are available. Fuchsias/Chartreuse, Dark Olive/Purple & Aqua/Lavender.

HAPPINESS IS A WARM BEAD KIT

Another collabroation. This time with Lampwork artist Sharon Peters. A really fun and easy to make project, Happiness is a Warm Bead Cuff combines Sharon's swirl beads with my beaded bracelet base gives you a Happy, whimsical bracelet. I like to wear three at a time. Triple Happiness!

IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE BRACELET KITS

I have a few It's Hip To Be Square Kits left as well. This has been a very popular kit through all my shows this year. Now there are just a few left. These are now on the Limited Edition list as well.

BLINGS & RINGS BRACELET KITS

I have some wonderful kits left from my summer shows. Two colors of Blings and Rings Bracelets from The Bead & Button Show are available this weekend at a nice discount.

There are 10 Bronze and Black kits and 8 Aqua and Fuchsia kits left. Then I will be out! Get them while they last!

Today, I'm going to spend the day with my friend, Pennie Cook. We met at the airport in Denver after the Rocky Mountain Bead Society Bazaar. Both of us were teaching and never saw each other until we were at the airport heading to San Diego. I saw her sitting there doing kumihimo and went to ask about it. We sat together all the way to San Diego laughing and talking. Aside from our names, we have a love of beads, fibers, plants and gardening in common. She lives in the northern San Diego area, so we try to get together as often as our schedules allow.

I thought this Black & Purple grouping of new jewelry would make a great picture!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

It was a beautiful morning at Coronado People Beach. Still cool at 7:45 am. Jasmin went back to David's last night, so I took myself to People Beach rather than Dog Beach, early this morning. I saw dolphins swimming along the wave line, kayakers near them, along with pelicans and seagulls who were following the dolphins hoping for leftovers. I did try to get a shot of the dolphins, but my camera doesn't have a long enough lens to catch them. However, there was a large flock of early bird seagulls standing around on the sand as I made my way to the water, so I took a picture of them. As I walked along, I noticet a really nice, large rock with a very long piece of seaweed clinging to it. The rock anchors the seaweed to the ocean floor. (Until a storm or rough tides uproot it and sling it onto the shore, that is!) The ocean has been my anchor for my entire life. I try to go there any time I need peace and serenity as well as some exercise. Beads have also been a thread of stability for me. Many of my days have been spent beading at the beach.Actually, I'll bead just about anywhere!

Friday, August 28, 2009

I just logged onto Robin Atkins' Blog to have a closer look at her beautiful Treasure Box. Meanwhile, I saw her post Why Blog? I ask myself that often. I know it is a tool to get my business out "there". But to put personal things on my blog is really hard for me. I have been very private, almost in hiding when I am not out teaching classes. That led me to Robin's link to the Willow Manor blog. I just had to add these two blogs to my list of favorites and I have only touched briefly on each of them. Hmmm, maybe that's what I will read in the middle of the night when I am awake.

I am learning to open my life up little by little these days. I am just emerging from my cocoon and flying back to myself. Now that I am single again I am able to emerge. I like being single. It is quiet and peaceful. My ex-husband and I like each other so much more now and are able to be friends. A miracle of forgiveness.

We have voluntary joint custody of Jasmine the dog. I love to take her to Dog Beach in Coronado. We can see the Hotel Del Coronado just to the south on the same stretch of beach. Point Loma is across the water just to the north. Looking further south is Imperial Beach, where I grew up with Tijuana, Mexico right next door.

I love rocks and found the rock below rock on our last trip to Coronado Dog Beach. Nice addition to my rock collection! I love how the seaweed is clinging to the rock. It washed up to the shore and dried out, but is still sticking to that rock!

I have been rediscovering many of my lifetime loves! Body Surfing, which I did nearly every day growing up in I.B. Traveling, camping, going out to listen to music, having friends over for dinner, lunch, breakfast and just plain fun! I take walks about three times a week at the San Diego Zoo, first thing in the morning when they open. Most of the time with my friend, Rose. It is cool and shady and the animals are having their breakfasts.

I am so very fortunate to be part of a large creative community. Many of my friends are artists of one kind or another. Painters, ceramists, fabric artists, beaders, lampwork artists. This community is very, very supportive and spiritual.

I am playing with many new materials these days. Journaling and drawing in my journal, adding pieces of rust, glass, wood and rocks. I bought some great pieces of ancient Roman Glass shards last year at the Bellevue Bead Festival in WA. I plan to incorporate them into a new Freeform Basket. I can't wait to play with that! Life is good!

Friday, August 21, 2009

I am so glad to announce that I will be teaching at Beaded Bliss, Julie's new shop in Danville, CA next month. This wonderful little shop is getting rave reviews from other teachers and students alike. Julie's former shop, "The Place to Bead" in San Ramon is closed and this lovely new shop is just down the road. I will bring a Trunk Sale of many of my Kits and Tutorials.

Monday, August 10, 2009

It was brought to my attention recently that several beading books by some of our favorite artists are being pirated. They are being scanned then offered as a FREE download, very poor quality, on a website.I am not going to give the name of the website since this would just serve to promote it. I have to ask the question, what is getting these books, or for that matter music, or movies or artwork of any type for free really costing all of us?

As an artist and author, I make my entire living from my artwork, writing books, instructions for my kits and tutorials that I offer on my website. It is more than a full time job to keep designing new things and providing wonderful projects to teach and make kits from. It may seem really great to get the work of others for free, but think about it in terms of your own job or work. Whatever type of work you do is a service you provide for a paycheck. Imagine if your boss came to you at work and said, "From now on, you will be working here for no pay. Since you do such good work and everyone wants you to do the work for them free of charge because it makes them so happy, I am going to stop paying you." Would you quit or just keep on working for free, feeling so flattered that what you do is so popular that everyone wants you to do your work for them at no charge? When the work of anyone is “shared” or offered for Free it is like telling a person you have to work for free because we love what you do. Ask yourself if artists and musicians, actors, bead artists, anyone who does work you love so much, should be paid for their work as you are paid for the work you do each day? Even if you love your job as many of us do, we all have living expenses. We all deserve to make a decent living for our work.

As enticing as it seems, I am asking everyone who sees the published work of others offered for free to resist downloading it. Check out the source first and find out if it is pirated. If you don't know, think about it for a moment. Would I allow anyone to offer all my books and instructions for free when I am still paying to print and distribute them. Would Interweave Press or Lark Books still hire artists to write books for them if you could just get everything for free. The publishing industry puts real people to work. Don't allow more jobs to disappear. Our economy needs to grow and that takes all of us supporting each other. We are all connected. If enough artists stop getting paid for what they do, they won't be able to afford to work at it any more and just may quit and get a "regular" job. Where would the world be without the wonderful creative arts and all the joy we get from beadwork, artwork, music, movies and any other of the creative arts that enrich our world?

Friday, August 7, 2009

It is funny how one little component leads to a world of inspiration! I had just finished my third Crystal Cube and did not want to bead a necklace for it to hang from. I had gone to visit Marcia Decoster and she was wearing a piece of beadwork hung from a chain. Great idea! Put beadwork on a chain. Saves lots of time. So off I went to a local bead store, The Bouncing Bead in La Mesa, the next town over, and bought a piece of chain. I brought it home and added my Crystal Cube to it. It looked pretty good, but needed more. I added crystals to the chain and was very happy. Hey, I thought, I could do a lot of stuff with this chain. I went back to buy more chain and voila! A new Fabulous class, Enchanted Chains Bracelet. An offshoot of that idea is Double Enchantment Bracelet pictured above. This is a full day class, but the original single wide bracelet, Enchanting Chains Bracelet, can be done in a half day.

It has been a while since I posted! So much has happened since I went to Tacoma. I caught a bit of a cold after I came home, so that ate up about 4 days. I did recover just in time to get ready for the Bead Society of San Diego County's annual Bead Bazaar. It was a very nice event. I had a booth for the first time in many years. The booth was really beautiful. My finished work was displayed on the back wall of the booth with kits and instructions for sale on the table and a few hanging on the wall. The feedback from shoppers was really quite gratifying! I am planning to have more sales booths next year, so this was great practice. To everyone who came by, thanks for all your support and lovely comments. The Bead Society member volunteers did a splendid job with this event, so thank you all as well.